The Walmart Organization

Rochelle Frazier

The Walmart History

• The Walmart story began in 1962, when Sam Walton, our founder opened the company’s first discount store in Rogers, Ark.

The Walmart History

1970’s

•1st Distribution Center and Home Office built in Bentonville Arkansas

•Began selling shares over the counter publicly

•Company closed out the decade 276 stores and 21,000 associates

1980’s

•Implementation of the people greeter in all stores

•1st supercenter opens in Washington, Missouri

•Marked it’s 25th anniversary with 1,198 stores and 200,000 associates

1990’s

•Walmart Visitor Center opened in Bentonville, AR

•Sam Walton passed away at the age of 74

•Walmart goes international in Mexico

•2,234 stores and 1,140,000 associates becoming worlds largest private employer

The Walmart History 2000’s

• The 3,000th international store opens in Brazil

• Walmart expands its $4 generic prescription program

• Walmart brings commitment to environmental sustainability

• Over 6,200 facilities around the world. Over 1.6 million associates

Structure of Walmart

Executive

Business Unit Leaders

Business Unit Senior Staff

Department Heads/Managers

Individual Managers

Walmart cultureRecycle--each store participates domestic and

international

More on Walmart Culture

Three Basic Beliefs--everyone should practice daily

• Respect for the individual

• Strive for Excellence

• Service to the customer

Sundown Rule—management should get back with an associate or customer with in twenty four hours on any question that can not be answered immediately

The Backroom Change Process

was started to improve the level of customer service in the store. Department managers will now be available more frequently on the sales floor to focus primarily on the merchandising and customer service. Walmart wants to provide products on the sales floor in a timely manner so no one has to wait till the products get back in stock. This will help improve the customer shopping experience.

Leadership actions throughout the process

• Executive leadership provided with training webinars that cascaded down to store business unit leaders

• Store business unit leaders communicate process with remaining store management

• Training classes provided to department managers and all effected associates

• Talking points provided for associate meetings• Order necessary supplies and communicate with resources• Pilot the process in a select group of stores• Select one department manager within the store to champion the process

first

Strategies for

Overcoming Resistance• Daily communication meetings • Select a department manager to

champion the process• Enforcement of attendance policy• Analysis meetings• Updates on sales, customer

service surveys and inventory levels provided

Sustaining the Change• New process added to daily

routine and responsibilities• Continuation of analysis meetings• Becomes a future checklist for the

Market Manager tour• Unannounced store visits

reviewing the process

Effectiveness of the change process

Successes• Pilot program• Communication plan• Department manager champion

• Slight improvement in customer experience surveys

Opportunities• Associates reverting back to the

old way of doing things• Did not account for the holiday

season in the implementation timeline

• Did not impact sales as expected• Inventory level too high

Walmart response to innovation and change

• Walmart is great at recognizing the need for innovation and change. The company steadily forecast years away implementing small stages in the process gradually. Walmart invest the resources and time piloting new process to increase their sustainability.

As Walmart continues to grow, in my opinion, it will be essential to allow stores increased flexibility to meet the demands of their local communities in order to deliver on our mission to save customers money so they can live better.